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VANCOUVER - In his first official day as the Non-Partisan Association's candidate for mayor, career journalist and publisher Kirk LaPointe said he has ambitious plans to remake Vancouver as a friendlier city for neighbourhoods and businesses.

But as for whether those plans involve dismantling some of the more controversial policies of Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson — including official City Hall opposition to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — LaPointe was short on details.

Monday's announcement that he has taken over the NPA and will captain an as-yet unrevealed list of candidates was more about setting "clean campaign" values for the November 15 election, LaPointe said.

But LaPointe, 56, couldn't resist a few shots at Robertson's party, which faces a restive electorate after two terms of aggressive policy-making. On Kinder Morgan's proposal, he said the NPA will take a "very responsible position" but that "it is not going to preclude, as the mayor has, the process that is underway in order to identify and articulate the very necessary environmental and legal ramifications of development."

He also said Robertson had alienated neighbourhoods by not properly consulting them, and was allowing "bullies and spin doctors" define the city's image.

He said Robertson had strayed beyond the normal boundaries of being a mayor, telling reporters the mayor was trying to be "the president of the NEB" (National Energy Board) rather than the city's top politician.

His comments drew immediate rebuke from Vision Vancouver, which did not make Robertson available for comment. Instead, it put up a councillor who called on LaPointe to declare opposition to the pipeline.

"Mr. Lapointe's NPA voted against the city's plan to address homelessness, against what we've done to support affordable housing, and don't support the Broadway subway line. The only thing they won't vote against is Kinder Morgan's plans to bring more oil tankers into our local waters," Heather Deal said in a statement.

As Vision Vancouver's opening salvo against the new NPA candidate, it wasn't an all-out attack on LaPointe. But it showed the ruling party intends to try to define LaPointe on its own terms, something he has also vowed not to let happen.

"The mistake that everyone makes in politics is to be defined by your opponent. I am not going to let Vision define me," he said.

Instead, LaPointe tried to define Vision itself, saying it had literally taken the city in a dark direction, making City Hall unfriendly to its citizens, hiding the true nature of its financial affairs and silencing staff. Without providing any details, he accused the Vision administration of creating a culture of "insider deals" and "cosy arrangements" that don't benefit the public at large.

"We need to turn our attention to rebuilding trust in our government. There will be no more insider deals, no more cosy arrangements. Rules of business that are clear and consistent and fair. The days of a secret government with our public servants muzzled, with the true state of our finances hidden, will come to an end," he said. "The politics I want is in the public interest, not in the special interest."

LaPointe said he will roll out the NPA's policies in coming weeks but gave out a few hints; a freeze on taxes until a review of the city's financial books; free wireless across the city, starting with poorer neighbourhoods first; more attention to reducing personal and property crimes; a review of the Point Grey Road bikeway, and an "end to the divisive politics of cyclists versus motorists."

LaPointe said he supports bike lanes and notes the NPA built more than Vision did. "They just happen to be slightly less obtrusive and they happen to have won the support of the community as they were built," he told reporters.

In becoming the NPA's mayoral candidate LaPointe, once the managing editor of The Vancouver Sun, also now takes over as the top party official. He said he has scrutinized all of the candidates who will run for the NPA on city council, park and school board, and will begin to reveal those people in coming weeks.

LaPointe also pledged to keep the campaign clean of what he called "gutter politics." He said every candidate, executive member and staff of the NPA will sign a declaration pledging not to make personal attacks. If they do, he will resign, he said, and he challenged Robertson to enact the same declaration.

"Mr. Robertson, I ask you to do the same thing. Sign the declaration. Rein in your team now. Resign if they violate it and bring your signatures forward now," LaPointe said.

"Let us have a campaign in keeping with our great city. Let's have a clean campaign about ideas. Let's fight and win and lose on the basis of ideas, not insults. Not a campaign of smears and leaks and trash talk. The bullies and the spin doctors need to be silenced."

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The candidates:

Kirk LaPointe

Party: Non-Partisan Association

Age: 56

Date of Birth: Dec. 12, 1957

Place of Birth: Toronto

Current job: Publisher, Self-Counsel Press, adjunct professor of journalism, University of B.C.

Education: Ryerson University (journalism), New Toronto Secondary School

Residence: UBC campus

Spouse: Mary Lynn Young, associate dean at UBC

Divorced from: Denise Rudnicki, former CBC TV host

Children: 3, two with Rudnicki, one from Young's previous marriage

Political history: First foray into elected politics; longtime journalist

Volunteer history: Current president of the Vancouver Minor Softball Association, board member of Frontier College (literacy) former member of Canadian Centre for Faith and the Media

Career history: More than 30 years in journalism; former managing editor of The Vancouver Sun, executive editor of the National Post, senior vice-president of CTV, former CBC ombudsman and host on CBC Newsworld; still blogs on media ethics and issues

Notable personal history: Raised by his single mother in what he called poverty conditions

Notable endorsement: Conrad Black once called him a "presentable young man"

Gregor Angus Bethune Robertson

Party: Vision Vancouver

Age: 48

Date of Birth: September 18, 1965

Place of Birth: North Vancouver

Current job: Mayor of Vancouver

Education: UBC, Colorado College, Carson Graham Secondary School

Residence: Downtown Vancouver

Spouse: Amy Robertson (separated)

Children: 4, including one adopted

Political history: First elected mayor 2008; former NDP MLA, Vancouver-Fraserview 2005-2008

Volunteer History: Tides Canada, director 2002-2004

Career history: Co-founder of Vancouver-based juice company Happy Planet (since sold). According to his Facebook pace, early on he "cowboyed in the Cariboo and sailed the Pacific for 18 months, accompanied by his wife. They settled in New Zealand, where he was attracted to, and began, farming as a trade." They returned to Fort Langley and farmed, where he started Happy Planet. In 2004, after being a Tides Canada director, he ran for the NDP provincially in Vancouver-Fraserview, acting's the party's critic for small business and as the co-chair on the caucus climate change task force. He ran for mayor in 2008, defeating NPA challenger Peter Ladner.

Notable personal history: A distant relative of Canadian medical hero Norman Bethune, who brought modern medicine to rural China during the Chinese Revolution; hence his middle name

Notable endorsement: " I heard his passion and I said you should go for it because you have a lot to offer because you're a unique person going into politics." - Joel Solomon, who became Robertson's mentor

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